Two Trenton police officers injured in shooting, suspect dead

TRENTON — Two city police officers have been injured and a suspect is dead after a shoot-out broke out Thursday morning.

According to the Mercer County prosecutor’s office, Trenton police were responding to a report of domestic violence on the first block of Hobart Avenue at about 8:43 a.m. when the shooting occurred.

The suspect in the home shot at the officers, officials said, and the suspect was shot dead inside the home.

The extent of the injuries suffered by the officers is unknown at this time, but they were transported to Capital Health Regional Medical Center. Officials said one officer was struck in the back and the other was hit in the shoulder area. Both officers were said to be conscious and speaking at the hospital.

Sources have identified the two officers as Detectives Edgar Rios and James Letts. Rios is a 30-year veteran who was a fixture in the Trenton Police Department’s homicide unit. According to police records, Rios racked up 947.5 hours of overtime while working cases in the capital city 2012, the third highest mark on the force. Letts has been on the force for 15 years.

According to city Councilman George Muschal, a former Trenton police officer himself, Rios was the officer struck in the back and he may have been struck more than once.

Muschal said Rios was in “critical, critical condition,” and said he was rushed into emergency surgery.

Muschal was joined at the hospital this morning by fellow council members Phyllis Holly-Ward and Marge Caldwell-Wilson, along with Mayor Tony Mack.

Mack refused to comment on the situation, saying instead that his office would issue a press release.

“If this isn’t proof that we need more help, then I don’t know what is,” said one officer after the shooting.

Outside the hospital, about a dozen officers gathered to offer support and to try and find out any details on their friends’ injuries.

The dead suspect has been identified as 22-year-old Eric McNeil.

A neighbor near the scene of the shooting said the victim of the domestic violence incident that was under investigation by the two officers is a friend of hers. She said the victim told her that along with abusing her, McNeil had recently killed her puppy as well.

The neighbor said she was feeding her own puppy at around 8:30 when she heard a “boom.”

A few minutes later, the neighbor said, her friend was banging on her door, saying it was her boyfriend, McNeil, who had shot at the police and that officers told her to run once the shooting broke out.

McNeil’s family members declined to comment, saying only that they had just suffered a tragedy. Neighbors said McNeil lived with his aunt on the 300 block of Garfield Avenue. Police and parole officers were seen executing a search warrant at the house around 11 a.m. McNeil was on parole after serving three years in prison on a 2008 robbery conviction.

“I’m concerned for his aunt, she lost her nephew, Matthew, three months ago to disease and now she just lost Eric,” Rose, a neighbor of McNeil’s, said.

“I heard the shooting at about 8:30 or maybe closer to 8:47. I came out on the porch and saw police officers there. It’s usually quiet on our end of the block but down there where the shooting happened, for lack of better words, it’s hell,” said Horacestine Ingram, who lives on the first block of Hobart with her husband, Ozzie Ingram Jr.

“Of course, it’s upsetting,” Ingram said. “I hate to see two police officers shot and another man killed. That’s not how you want to wake up and start your morning. I just hope things get better.”